Revolvers Suck or My Bad Luck

Most of the old name manufacturers have decided that quality control is not worth spending the resources and money on. They just maintain a small section for warranty returns. It's sad because it didn't used to be this way. And most factories today don't have craftsman who "fit" all of the parts to a specific frame. They just have "assembly workers" drop in CAD/CAM produced parts. My advice is to look at lots of used revolvers. If they have not been abused they'll generally last a long time.

Or maybe a third choice, those make/models you bought suck.

My SW686s have all been good.

How do you handle your revolvers? Do you do the cylinder "slap"? That many problems and I have to think its something to do with how they are being used.
I've owned a lot of revolvers, shoot them regularly, and have only had one problem with a revolver, related to a crappy design loosening up after hundreds of rounds, not a catastrophic failure.

I'm going with the third choice. I've had good luck with S&W, but stay away from anything that isn't steel. Colt has also been good to me. Had a decent Taurus but I like to handle these before buying.

I have a lot of revolvers. Mostly S&W old models. Ruger Super Blackhawks and Vaqueros, also older.
All without issue. Even my semi's are old. My only sorta new is a S&W 325PD with scandium frame and the rightfully hated "Hillary Hole", and it's good too. I would like one of the old Colt "Snakes", but to $$$$.
So, you may guess, my suggestion is to try an older model.

marb4 said:

No cylinder slap or abuse. I clean them regularly and treat them well. Also, I don't "home gunsmith" them either. All of the issues mentioned in my OP have occurred within 4 months or so of purchasing each one brand new.

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Sounds like you have some seriously bad luck with revolvers. I'd try older, pre 1990's Colt or S&W. Sadly, I think you are an unfortunate example of why newer guns and mediocre quality manufacturers are not as desirable to me as pre-lock S&W's and Colts.

marb4, I am afraid you are just kind of a lottery winner, only the lottery you are winning is "bad factory-new revolvers". There is no reason for it, any more than there is a reason that anyone gets a winning lottery ticket. If I understand correctly, probability mathematics (a course I dropped out of in college) tells us that each new event is uninfluenced by past events, so your odds of getting a good revolver next time should be the same as anyone else's. Of course, that goes for the odds of getting another bad revolver as well. Good luck, but I could not blame you if you have become discouraged.

I think I see the problem. You're buying new revolvers. Buy old revolvers, and check them over before getting out your wallet. I have around twenty revolvers. I've replaced a spring here and there, and a firing pin, and that's it. I'm sorry to hear about the shoddy K6, as that's one of my few newer ones, and I'm impressed with it enough that it's my summer carry.

Old revolvers, friend. You'll save money, have better workmanship, and enjoy the pride of ownership that comes with a classic piece of machinery.

I’ve had similar bad luck over the past 5 years or so from Smith, Ruger, Kimber, and Colt.

I only own revolvers so I obviously don't think they suck. But I do think their reputation for 100% reliability is overblown. Anything that slightly misaligns the fit of cylinder to frame can slow down or stop a revolver: soot under the ejector, loose gas ring, high primer, bent crane, ejector backing out, just overall dirtiness, etc. I wouldn't count on ANY revolver to fire 100% if I dropped it on its side - the hand and cylinder stop are too vulnerable. A dropped modern plastic auto will most likely just keep on shooting no problem.

No wonder you are doubting revolvers.

I would also tend to think that it’s an Option 3 issue. Not trying to sound like a gun snob but I have a pretty good run in my experience with S&W. Ruger makes a great single action but their other revolvers do not impress me at all. Charter Arms and Taurus I have no experience with...nor do I want any.

The handful of LCR's I've handled all have had problems. Some were serviceable, others would have required returns to Ruger. Charter Arms and Taurus are known to not have the best QC. And you've also got the cheapest S&W available on the list. The Kimber and the GP100 kind of surprise, but the GP100 was only a broken hand so that's easy enough to fix.

In the last 10 years none of my revolvers required return trips, however my list of new revolvers only includes S&W's, Colt and a Ruger GP100.

Wow! That's unfortunate.

I've had nothing but good luck with my Ruger and S&W revolvers. But, most of mine are a bit older (pre-1990 build) with the exception of my 637-2 which is less than 10 years old. I don't have any experience with Charter or Taurus.

SteadyD said:

I’ve had similar bad luck over the past 5 years or so from Smith, Ruger, Kimber, and Colt.

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Curious, due to me being in the market for one, what kind of bad luck have you had with the Kimber?

One, I'd say you have bad luck with revolvers. That being said, I think the notion that revolvers are simpler that auto loaders is false. They are less dependent on ammunition quality but there's a good bit going on in a double action revolver. As far as reliability, I'm not sure one is inherently more reliable than the other. Typically, I find semi autos have minor malfunctions more often, revolvers have fewer overall malfunctions, but when they do, its major.

bersaguy said:

One, I'd say you have bad luck with revolvers. That being said, I think the notion that revolvers are simpler that auto loaders is false. They are less dependent on ammunition quality but there's a good bit going on in a double action revolver. As far as reliability, I'm not sure one is inherently more reliable than the other. Typically, I find semi autos have minor malfunctions more often, revolvers have fewer overall malfunctions, but when they do, its major.

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I'd argue that, simply because the act of feeding a cartridge from a magazine into a chamber reliably is a complicated process involving a lot of engineering, designing, and fine tuning, and is a pretty big point of malfunctions in semi auto's, probably the biggest point. Remove feeding and ejection issues from the equation, and I'd agree. Revolver internals are just as delicate and complicated as semi auto internals, if not more so. But I have seen many many more FTF and FTE issues in semi autos than I have broken internal parts in a revolver.

One thing is for sure, the major failures I've had with revolvers have been much easier to diagnose and fix than some of the feeding and extraction issues I've had with semi autos.

my revolvers are single action Ruger superblackhawks never have had an issue ,

Ive had bad luck with S&W, taurus and 1 ruger. The issues ive had with taurus will prevent me from ever buying another one. The issues ive had with S&W were a defect type failure and a durability issue but i would buy another but it would be inspected first and loaded with moderate ammo only. The issue i had with ruger was a qc issue with a barrel, it happens. I would buy a ruger before any other revolver but wouldnt consider an lcr. All makers have trouble at times, ive had a defective glock before too - wouldnt return to battery half the time. I have had better luck with semi autos but any of my revolvers i have now have been solid for a long time. I like revolvers best

You forgot option #3 - Buy better revolvers!

I am a semi-auto guy so my revolver experience is somewhat limited. The only revolver that we have in common is the NAA mini of which I own 3 all of which have shot perfectly and been perfectly reliable.

Back in the 90's I bought a Webley top break 45 and a Nagant 7.62 gas seal revolver. These revolvers taught me that the troops back then must have had very muscular trigger fingers! Both these military revolvers have incredibly stiff triggers but have also been incredibly reliable!

I year or two ago I decided that I wanted a NICE revolver that I could enjoy at the range so I started reading and doing a lot of research. My search came down to buying a S&W for the best trigger or a Redhawk for its over built ruggedness. I finally decided on a S&W 625 in 45LC (or even possibly 45acp) for its versatility and the search for a used one I could afford started...

About 3 months ago while perusing the adds for a 625 I found a great price on a Dan Wesson 744 (44 mag) and jumped! A 44 mag was never really in the running but the Dan Wesson reputation made it too good to pass up! The 8" barrel on the Dan Wesson was much longer than what I wanted but that was pretty easily rectified by buying a 4" barrel for $240 which made it much better balanced and even looks much better. Of course I soon found that I enjoyed shooting full power 44 mag loads out of the 8" barrel much more than I do out of the 4" barrel. I just just got in the gear and supplies for assembling some 44 mag wimp loads for the 4" barrel.

I have been seriously considering a .38 special LCRx. Your issue with your LCR really makes me wonder if I should spend my money else where since I already have a full range of semi-auto carry guns to choose from. I have never owned a Taurus but have read so many reports similar to yours that I probably never will own one. I have also considered the Kimber DASA revolvers... I am not sure if they are worth the money a new one cost and it will be a while before they start showing up used.

Like your J frame my Dan Wesson did come with an excessive cylinder to forcing cone gap... luckily this is a 2 minute fix on a Dan Wesson and I reset the gap every time I switch barrels at the range.

SwampWolf said:

Curious, due to me being in the market for one, what kind of bad luck have you had with the Kimber?

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Mine had sticky extractions. When they sent it back after swapping the cylinder it had endshake that wasn’t present initially and still had somewhat sticky extractions. I sent it back and they said it was in spec. My first K6s is perfect in every way, however. I have shot them side by side with the same ammo. One cleanly extracts without issue while the other hangs some cases up with more regularity than I’d like, even when slapping the ejector rod forcefully. Not sure what to make of it.

I don’t think I’d let my experience stop you though. The K6s is an excellent revolver and you rarely hear of issues with them. The trigger really is excellent.

Sucks
1 HR
1 HighStandard
2 Taurus
All the rest good to go!
Never had a malfunctioning Smith or RUGER!
Call me lucky!